Eric Ravilous

Eric Ravilous was born in Acton in South London, but grew up in Eastbourne on the south Coast. He began his studies here, until he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, where he met and became lifelong friends with Edward Bawden. They were affiliated with the tradition of English Topographical Watercolourists, whose work is distinguished by its lightness of application and abstracted technique.

Ravilious married Tirzah Garwood in 1930 and moved to Great Bardfield in Essex, where Bawden and his wife also lived.
During his frequent painting trips to ¨Furlongs¨, the home of Peggy Angus, which is near Lewes, in East Sussex he began a stormy affair with fellow artist Helen Binyon. Many of the beautiful paintings from this period , in his distintive subtle pallette are in a permanent collection at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne. He was one of the best known artists of the 30's and also designed graphics for London Transport and ceramics for Wedgewood, now hugely collectable.

When the second World War broke out he became an official war artist, painting memorable images of submarines, aircraft and coastal defences.

Tragically he was one of the few official war artists to be killed on active service, in an air accident in 1942.

A recent exhibition at the Imperial War Museum displayed a great collection of Ravilious' work and a number of books have covered the extrordinary achievement of his short life. Most notably Imagined Realities and the England of Eric Ravilious.